Public Role Of Religion Research Articles

The Public Role of Religion and the Response of Public Theology

This study discusses theological assertions concerning the public role of religion in post-secular societies. In the context of religion’s renewed emergence in the public sphere, it is being called upon to overcome the beliefs of individual and private realms and actively assume the role of a participant in the common goal of a better society. Religion, in this context, is not confined to the personal sphere but is recognized as a crucial participant in shaping a more desirable societal landscape. Religion holds the potential to renew the spirituality of citizens, foster a sense of belonging, and contribute to the formation of social ethics. In response to these circumstances, Christianity is engaging with a new theological methodology known as public theology, proposing a public role for the church and advocating for the public participation of Christians. This study aims to propose public roles for the church and theology in post-secular societies.

Proselytising and pastoral care: chaplains in Australian government schools

ABSTRACT School chaplaincy in Australia is highly contentious. The federal government funds a chaplaincy programme in Australia’s secular public schools, which, combined with the declining influence of institutional Christianity, places Christian chaplains at the nexus of debates on the public role of religion. Yet little is known about how these chaplains integrate their religious convictions with their role. This article draws on 12 interviews with Christian chaplains, and asks: (1) how do these chaplains understand their faith within their role?; (2) how do they practice their faith through their role; and (3) how do they negotiate the ban on ‘proselytising’? This article finds that chaplains see their work as a call from God that enables a deep sense of purpose, and is also aimed at young people’s empowerment. They practically express their faith through care, bridging school and Christian communities, and prayer. Last, they practice conversations about faith, described as ‘dialogical evangelism’. Given the lack of studies of chaplaincy practice in secular contexts, this article is significant for its empirical depth, and discussion of controversial topics. It concludes by examining the significance of these findings for policy makers, and for wider debates about the interaction between religious people and secular institutions.

Religion-Related Legitimations in Abortion Policy-Making in Poland. What Do They Tell Us About the Public Role of Religion?

Abstract The existing research on and conceptualization of the public presence of religion usually builds on the Habermasian understanding of the public sphere. This has centered the discussion on the public presence of religion around the question of where such a presence is justified. Discourse theories offer an alternative understanding, stating that the public sphere is an area of struggles where diverse discourses compete to establish a definition of social reality as taken for granted and hegemonic. This shift opens the question of how a given definition of social reality becomes taken for granted, pointing to the role of legitimation. Against this background, our article argues that religion’s ability to serve as a valuable “resource” for building justifications in discursive struggles for hegemony could serve as indicators of its presence in the public sphere. Along these lines, we analyze religion’s legitimizing role in abortion policy-making in Poland.

The interplay of personal storytelling with rational justifications in online discussions: A qualitative exploration of news user comments

In light of theoretical controversies among deliberation scholars, this study thoroughly explores the interplay of personal storytelling with rational justifications in online discussions. In a qualitative content analysis, it examines how this relationship manifests in online news user comments on the public role of religion and secularism in society from the period of August 2015 until July 2016. To provide more general interpretive insights, the study analyses highly comparable data from multiple countries. The material stems from the websites of nine daily news media in Australia, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. In the investigated online news user comments, personal storytelling regularly interplays with rational justifications in the shape of a narrative rationality and a supportive narrativity. While narrative rationality relies on personal narratives to make a point in the form of a rational justification, supportive narrativity builds on personal experiences referenced in passing to further reinforce a general line of reasoning. Personal storytelling thus plays a vital role in justifying the normative rightness of the positions that the commenters take on the contested issue. This supports normative theories that acknowledge the merit of personal storytelling for public deliberation and provides new impulses for their specification.

Religious Coping Styles and Depressive Symptoms in Geriatric Patients: Understanding the Relationship through Experiences of Integrity and Despair.

Older persons are often confronted with challenging events in their lives. Religion can offer them a way to deal with these challenges. The study of religious coping styles helps us to understand how people find support in their religion or wrestle with aspects of their religion when they are confronted with difficulties. Especially when older adults face illness and hospitalization, religious coping styles might be triggered. Despite the fact that the public role of religion, especially Christianity, is diminishing in West European societies, a large group of Belgian geriatric patients call themselves religious. Previous studies have shown that there is a link between positive/negative religious coping styles and the depressive symptoms that often occur in older adults. More recently, some scholars have emphasized that this relationship is more complex. Therefore, this paper investigates the role of one possible underlying mechanism between positive/negative religious coping styles and depressive symptoms in geriatric patients, namely the developmental process of integrity and despair as two factors within this mechanism. One hundred thirty-nine geriatric inpatients from three hospitals in Belgium who reported to feel religiously affiliated were involved in this study. Our results indicate that experiences of integrity and despair function as an explanatory pathway in the relationship between negative religious coping styles and depressive symptoms. Further, a direct link was found between both when accounting for experiences of integrity and despair. For positive religious coping styles, no direct or indirect relationship with depressive symptoms was found. In healthcare, geriatric caregivers need to be aware of the interaction between positive and negative religious coping styles, the developmental process of integrity and despair, and depressive symptoms.

Is Constructive Engagement Online a Lost Cause? Toxic Outrage in Online User Comments Across Democratic Political Systems and Discussion Arenas

This study is the first to simultaneously investigate country-level and platform-related context factors of toxic outrage, that is, destructive incivility, in online discussions. It compares user comments on the public role of religion and secularism from 2015/16 in four democracies (Australia, United States, Germany, Switzerland) and four discussion arenas on three platforms (News websites, Facebook, Twitter). A novel automated content analysis ( N = 1,236,551) combines LIWC dictionaries with machine learning. The level of toxic outrage is higher in majoritarian than in consensus-oriented democracies and in arenas that afford plural, issue-driven rather than like-minded, preference-driven debates. Yet, toxic outrage is lower in forums that tend to separate public and private conversations than in those that collapse varying contexts. This suggests that user-generated discussions flourish in environments that incentivize actors to strive for compromise, put relevant issues center stage and make room for public debate at a relative distance from purely social conversation.

The Development of State Involvement in Political–Religious Relations in Contemporary Azerbaijan:Focusing on the Law on Religion, Separation of Religion and State, and the Public Role of Religion

The Development of State Involvement in Political–Religious Relations in Contemporary Azerbaijan:Focusing on the Law on Religion, Separation of Religion and State, and the Public Role of Religion

The Integrative Complexity of Online User Comments Across Different Types of Democracy and Discussion Arenas

This study is the first to compare the integrative complexity of online user comments across distinct democratic political systems and in discussion arenas with different primary use functions. Integrative complexity is a psycho-linguistic construct that is increasingly used by communication scholars to study the argumentative quality of political debate contributions. It captures the sophistication of online user comments in terms of differentiation and integration, mapping whether a post contains different aspects or viewpoints related to an issue and the extent to which it draws conceptual connections between these. This study investigates user contributions on the public role of religion and secularism in society between August 2015 and July 2016 from Australia, the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. In each country, it analyzes user posts from the (a) website comment sections and (b) public Facebook pages of mainstream news media, from the (c) Facebook pages of partisan collective actors and alternative media, and from (d) Twitter. Almost as many user contributions implicitly or explicitly differentiate various dimensions of or perspectives on an issue as express unidimensional, simplistic thoughts. Conceptual integration, however, is rare. The integrative complexity of online user comments is higher in consensus-oriented than in majoritarian democracies and in arenas that are used primarily for issue-driven, plural discussions rather than preference-driven, like-minded debates. This suggests that the accommodative public debate cultures of consensus-oriented political systems and interactions with individuals who hold different positions promote more argumentatively complex over simple online debate contributions.

Post-Secularism as a Basis of Dialogue between Philosophy and Religion

This article tackles the problem of religious radicalism. Religious radicalism is here interpreted as a protest against the pathology of secularism characterized by the privatization of religion. The privatization of religion is a process in which religion is regarded as an irrational and personal element, so that it cannot play a public role. In order to meet the pathology of privatization, this article offers the paradigm of post-secularism as proposed by Juergen Habermas that opens up the possibility for religion to actively participate in the public sphere. Furthermore, this writing argues that in post-secular society characterized by the public role of religion, it is essential to build a democratic and rational dialogue between religion and philosophy, faith and reason. A bridge that connects both is public reason. This article also shows that the post-secular condition opens up opportunities for theology to promote tolerance in a pluralistic society and to strengthen the public engagement of religion. This can avoid reducing religion to private piety without public responsibility while promoting the public engagement in religion in order to liberate the marginalized and oppressed.

Expert-Informed Topic Models for Document Set Discovery

ABSTRACT The first step in many text-as-data studies is to find documents that address a specific topic within a larger document set. Researchers often rely on simple keyword searches to do this, even though this may introduce considerable selection bias. Such bias may be even greater when researchers lack the domain knowledge required to make informed search decisions, for example, in cross-national research or research on unfamiliar social contexts. We propose expert-informed topic modeling (EITM) as a hybrid approach to tackle this problem. EITM combines the validity of external domain knowledge captured through expert surveys with probabilistic topic models to help researchers identify subsets of documents that cover initially unknown domain-specific topics, such as specific events and debates, that belong to a researcher-defined master topic. EITM is a flexible and efficient approach to the thematic selection of documents from large text corpora for further study. We benchmark and validate the method by discovering blog posts that address the public role of religion within large corpora of Australian, Swiss, and Turkish blog posts and provide researchers with a complete workflow to guide the application of EITM in their own work.

Anti-abortion activism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: ‘nationalizing’ the strategies

ABSTRACT The article focuses on the changing strategies of anti-abortion activists in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Firstly, it explores the interlinkage with the global conservative network and describes the shared strategies. Secondly, it focuses on the role of religion and church in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with an emphasis on abortion attitudes in both countries. Thirdly, by pointing out the expected public role of religion in each country, the text examines the specific nature of anti-abortion activism in the political, public, and service spheres of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Drawing upon comparative design, the article argues that, despite the mutual history of the two countries, the anti-abortion movements are driven to choose different strategies with which to promote their cause that reflects the ‘national’ cultural and religious ethos of the country. Whereas in the secularized Czech Republic, activists follow a model of downplaying religious background, the decentralized Slovak movements oscillate between appealing to traditional Catholic morality and engaging in more secularized strategies similar to those adopted by the Czech movements.

Polisemiczny charakter zjawiska laickości i przykłady jego zastosowania we współczesnym dyskursie publicznym

Przeprowadzona analiza przywołuje polisemiczny charakter pojęcia laickości, na co wpływ miały nowożytne idee polityczne i filozoficzne. Określone to zostało dwoma stanowiskami: diachronicznym, które ujmuje laickość jako rozciągnięty w czasie proces, oraz synchronicznym, które pozwala dostrzec w niej jednoczesność zachodzących zjawisk. W ten sposób koncepcja laickości odsłania swą praktyczną wartość w odniesieniu do wyzwań dotyczących zarówno kryzysu państwowości, jak i zmieniających się relacji państwo–Kościół. Wartość tę potwierdza miejsce, jakie w badaniach nad laickością zajmują zasady suwerenności, równości czy separacji. W konsekwencji realizowana w systemie demokratycznym zasada laickości opiera własne odniesienie do podstawowych wartości na merytorycznej argumentacji, wzajemnej perswazji oraz konsensusie jako procedurze podejmowania decyzji.W stosunku do pierwszego stanowiska analiza przywołuje badania przeprowadzone przez specjalistów z dziedziny nauk politycznych, filozoficznych, prawnych i socjologicznych. Natomiast drugie odniesione zostało do trzech wybranych kwestii, które określają funkcje laickości: relatywizmu, publicznej roli religii oraz prawdy.

Reflections on the Evolution of the State of the Art

Reflections on the evolution of the state of the art in the study of religion, society, and politics in Latin America over the last five decades begin with a critical assessment of the conventional wisdom of fifty years ago, as conveyed in texts and in graduate education. Stress was placed on modernization and secularization (with religion depicted as static and destined to decline) on consensus as a foundation for social life, and on drawing clear lines between religion and politics. These concepts were of little use when confronted in the late 1960s with a reality of continuous change, conflict, and efforts from left and right to assert a public role for religion. Working concepts of religion and politics had to be broadened well beyond church and state. Conceptual space had to be found for religious pluralism as the emergence of Pentecostal and evangelical churches was putting an end to centuries of Catholic monopoly: Latin America was becoming religiously plural. The state of the art is now much improved. Current and future research could usefully focus attention on issues like sexuality, gender, and identity, spirituality and encounters with charismatic power, and the new realities of religion and violence. Mid-range theories that give prominence to change and to the relation among social levels, and mixed methodologies that highlight meaning and significance will be central to any future state of the art that can make sense of a reality marked by continuing waves of creative change.

Secular–Religious Competition and the Exclusion of Islam from the Public Sphere: Islamic Welfare in Western Europe

AbstractThis paper deals in a qualitative discourse analysis with the role of Islamic organizations in welfare delivery in Germany and the Netherlands. Referring to Jonathan Fox's “secular–religious competition perspective”, the paper argues that similar trends of exclusion of Islamic organizations from public social service delivery can be explained with discourses on Islam in these two countries. The analysis, first, shows that in the national competitions between religious and secular ideologies on the public role of religion, different views are dominant (i.e., the support for the Christian majority in Germany and equal treatment of all religions in the Netherlands) which can be traced back to the respective regimes of religious governance. However, and second, when it comes to Islam in particular, in the Netherlands, the perspective of restricting all religions from public sphere prevails which leads to the rather exclusivist view on Islamic welfare that dominates in Germany, too.

Theology in Public Space and Social Movements: Notes from Alain Badiou’s Concept of Event

Abstract The debate over the public role of religion and of theology has become quite urgent. Not only by the evident religious presence in the party politics sphere, nor by its influence in the Brazilian social culture and life, but by the role that theology and, in this case, the churches can have to transform the social order. The present work reinforces the emancipatory potential of theology and the action of the church in the public space, pointing to a priority locus, from which both reflection and practice can be emancipatedly formulated, namely, social movements. Social movements, it will be argued, are the space in which the spark that gives rise to social and political change emerges in reality. In this sense, some notes will be made from the notion of Event of Alain Badiou, which recognizes, so to speak, the unique epiphanic character of the Events that can divide history between before and after, which effectively have a radically transforming character. In this sense, the heuristic potential for the church and theology will be emphasized to engage in the struggles of movements in the experience of the Badiousian Events that we could characterize as based on the paradigm of revelation.

“The Public Role of Religion” Editorial Notes

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The Public Role of Religion in Modern Ghanaian Society

Abstract This article lends its voice to the discussion on Charles Taylor’s Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited, which critiques William James’s view that the public dimensions of religion will be less real and less necessary and, therefore, will decrease in modern societies. The article uses Ghana as a case study to show that religion is still a public phenomenon in modern African societies. Religion has always been a crucial part of Ghanaian public life, including politics, although today it finds expression in the context of pentecostal Christianity. As the religious phenomenon with the strongest presence in contemporary Ghana, Pentecostalism informs the lives of many. Nowadays, during political elections, voters would consider whether or not a candidate exhibits pentecostal religious qualities in deciding to vote him or her into office. Likewise, politicians use religious communities and leaders for the purposes of mobilizing voters or organizing constituencies. Furthermore, religious language has come to dominate political discourse and debates with politicians casting their messages and visions in religious (mostly biblical) imagery and allusions to appeal to worshipping populations both imaginatively and emotionally. In demonstrating the increasing public quality of religion in modern societies, this article identifies some of the strategies Ghanaian politicians use to play on the pentecostal imaginations of the Ghanaian populace, all in a bid to secure political power. This article argues that while religion is a private experience in modern Western societies, it is public and mainstream and influences almost all facets of life in modern Africa, particularly Ghanaian politics.

Religious Liberty: Essays on First Amendment Law. Edited by Daniel N. Robinson & Richard N. Williams

We seem to be at a turning point with respect to religious liberty. Many talk about a “crisis of religious liberty.” This assessment is typically made by religious individuals and institutions who complain that their religiously informed views are increasingly marginalized. In the United States, at least, this is a bit surprising since the United States is associated with the idea of legal protection for religious liberty. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, the United States Supreme Court strongly emphasized the separation of church and state. In so doing, the Court seemed to be making an effort to privatize religion. The Court seemed uncomfortable with a public role for religion. This was particularly true in a series of cases dealing with government funding of religious schools. These religious schools had to be tolerated, of course, but they were confined almost entirely to the realm of private choice. There was, during this era, some constitutional protection for the free exercise of religion, but the actual results in the cases were more limited than the Court’s more sweeping rhetoric might have suggested.

Civil marriage, same-sex couples, and religious freedom: reflections from a U.S. scholar-activist

ABSTRACTIn responding to three scholars’ analyses of the public role of religion in the cultural debate about same-sex marriage, a U.S. ethicist and social activist examines a case study of a public debate in the State of Maine (U.S.A.) and considers two questions: (1) how to frame a religious argument in favor of marriage equality rather than one based on a liberal rights framework, and (2) given the religiously based opposition to marriage equality, how to critique their discriminatory claims without deprecating religion itself?

Political Development and the Public Role of Religion: A Critical Approach to Political Participation of Religion - Based Civic Organization

Political Development and the Public Role of Religion: A Critical Approach to Political Participation of Religion - Based Civic Organization